Google Upgrades Local Branded Onebox Display

Google has just upgraded the Branded Onebox display to allow the user to more easily view either a (very large) thumbnail preview of site or a map. The result defaults to the Map but there is an obvious arrow to guide the user to the preview mode. The preview is significantly larger than the standard preview taking up all of the room of the Map ad then some.

One will now need to go back to the Senators hearing testimony from Google and inform them that Google is now showing the Map less often. Perhaps this is the voluntary remedy that they had in mind. Take that Yelp!

This change though doesn’t just affect results that shows Maps. It enlarges the preview for any and all results.

Click to view as animated gif:

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Hi Mike,
I started seeing this over the weekend and was quite amazed! Thanks for highlighting it here. Something else I seem to be seeing a lot of is local listings with no obvious link to the Place Page – only a link to the reviews. I can’t think of an example, but I was looking at a bunch of restaurants or something last week and kept noticing this. Seemed kind of odd that the prominence of the Places link just wasn’t there. Have you been seeing these kinds of results, too?

@Miriam
I just this for the first time this afternoon. It certainly is a prominent display. The link to Places is not shown for any Place that has reviews and has been that way since the big review shake up in July(?)

Mike: Actually the presentation is across the board for all organic sites. Its not just related to G Places. It is very prominent.

As to the Senatorial hearings…. I saw twitter comments by you, Greg, and David. As you noted it was a joke. They often are. The whole process disturbs me. There is a saying that goes something like…..”Democracy is a terrible government process until you compare it to everything else.” –> then its better.

But these days I have the following our democracy in the Congress is among the worst in the world. They seemingly can’t get anything done….and hearings are sort of like attending a circus side show.

What a pity.

having said that…I still maintain Google is a monopoly and exhibits the worst elements of that with regard to small businesses. It’s G Places system at times has a life/death control over the fate of small businesses. Nobody controls it or oversees it. Google Places can present wrong and terrible information for a long time…ignore the comments of an owner, and destroy a business.

But nobody in power is responding to this problem of SMB’s. Instead a bunch of Senators grandstand on behalf of their states and constituencies for public television.

I had updated the article to reflect the fact that the new display applies to all previews but it is striking when it switches from the Map to the Preview mode.

2 notes on the hearings:

1)The guideline for monopoly regulation is either a)the consumer suffers or b)the monopolist wields their power in a way to intentionally harm others.

There is no precedent in law for regulating a monopoly just because they are big and powerful.

2)In a capitalist society, Monopoly hearings are by their very nature end up being a struggle between powerful corporate interests. The same happens in most policy discussions so the gridlock you see in Congress reflects the battle of competing capitalist positions.

These changes are cool. When Onebox displays include navigation pages, each page has a preview option. As of this morning it looks like the little arrows still have some bugs to work out (on Safari) however. Also the lack of a “places page” link is inconsistent – sometimes it appears, sometimes not.